The Legendary Dragon Alephwyr, named Alephwyr, BA

But at the same time Occupy -- in every city -- was entirely founded on the labor and knowledge of existing long time radical activists. Folks who labored without praise and with sneers and condemnation from the newbs, keeping the unseen infrastructure afloat.

Day one reddit white bros with no real politics were trying to seize ownership and control over Portland Occupy, a cluster of them told the cops right in front of me "you guys are part of the 99%. Don't worry, we know who the radicals are, we're making a list, we'll let you know"

The embezzlement, the using the state as a means to legitimize claims to activist rulership, the legions of dudes who immediately pivoted to reactionary politics when they couldn't get power in the movement... every city's Occupy had a similar story.

Another annoyance I don't think Gwen covered about Occupy, but is apropos: the piles of people who stayed entirely online but expected and demanded leadership and control over the camps. The early version of the podcast class.

It's hard for me to overstate how many reactionaries got their start in Occupy. Like half the fucking fascist-friendly wingnuts we deal with today in Portland date back to Occupy. And yeesh, the number of rapists and abusers that got injected into the scene. All opportunists.

Also Gwen's story about a new opportunist wanna be leader dude trying to hire houseless folks to do violence against older activists? Literally the same thing happened in Portland. (Also, jesus what a fucking dehumanizing rich kid move.)

I went to the NATO protests in Chicago the summer after Occupy and was put in minor leadership positions the week prior where I had to deal with Occupy folks from around the country... I was gobsmacked at how off the charts reactionary so many of them were.

Folks freshly radicalized by Occupy (but also by then considering themselves veteran / famous activists) would openly talk to one another in the most racist terms about communities of color. The most misogynistic mactivist language would be used about women. It was a shitshow.